Paul T. Buchheit is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He is the creator and lead developer of Gmail. He developed the original prototype of Google AdSense as part of his work on Gmail. He also suggested Google's now-famous company motto "Don't be evil" in a 2000 meeting on company values.[1]

He worked at Intel and later became the 23rd employee at Google. Buchheit was a founder of the startupFriendFeed, which was launched in 2007 and was acquired by Facebook in 2009 in a private transaction.[5]

In 2010, Buchheit left Facebook to become a partner at the investment firm Y Combinator. From 2006 (when he started investing) until 2008, Buchheit invested about $1.21 million in 32 different companies.[6] He also continues to oversee angel investments of his own in "about 40" startups (by his own estimate).[7]

Buchheit believes society has the technology and resources to provide adequate food, housing, education, and healthcare for everyone, using only a fraction of available labor and resources. In his view, this implies it is possible to put an end to wage slavery.[9] Buchheit further stated:[9]

“

I don't have to work. I choose to work. And I believe everyone deserves the same freedom I have. If done right, it's also economically superior, meaning we will all have more wealth. We often talk about how brilliant or visionary Steve Jobs was, but there are probably millions of people just as brilliant as he was. The difference is they likely didn't grow up with great parents, amazing teachers, and an environment where innovation was the norm. Also they didn't live down the street from Steve Wozniak. Economically, we don't need more jobs. We need more Steve Jobs. When we set everyone free, we enable the outliers everywhere. The result will be an unprecedented boom in human creativity and ingenuity.

Buchheit's Talk at Stanford University (May 23, 2012). Buchheit discusses his views on the future of technology entrepreneurship and venture capital, and other key aspects of starting a company and building and growing it into a large business, including e.g. the Y Combinator model versus the traditional model for venture capital.